Phase coexistence

On compression, a gaseous phase may condense to a liquid-expanded, L phase via a first-order transition. This transition is difficult to study experimentally because of the small film pressures involved and the need to avoid any impurities [76,193]. There is ample evidence that the transition is clearly first-order there are discontinuities in v-a plots, a latent heat of vaporization associated with the transition and two coexisting phases can be seen. Also, fluctuations in the surface potential [194] in the two phase region indicate two-phase coexistence. The general situation is reminiscent of three-dimensional vapor-liquid condensation and can be treated by the two-dimensional van der Waals equation (Eq. Ill-104) [195] or statistical mechanical models [191]. 

From this equation one concludes that the maximum number of phases that can coexist in a oiie-component system (d = 1) is tliree, at a unique temperature and pressure T = 0). When two phases coexist F= 1), selecting a temperature fixes the pressure. Conclusions for other situations should be obvious. 

While, in principle, a tricritical point is one where three phases simultaneously coalesce into one, that is not what would be observed in the laboratory if the temperature of a closed system is increased along a path that passes exactly tlirough a tricritical point. Although such a difficult experiment is yet to be perfomied, it is clear from theory (Kaufman and Griffiths 1982, Pegg et al 1990) and from experiments in the vicinity of tricritical points that below the tricritical temperature only two phases coexist and that the volume of one slirinks precipitously to zero at T. ... 

Simulations in the Gibbs ensemble attempt to combine features of Widom s test particle method with the direct simulation of two-phase coexistence in a box. The method of Panagiotopoulos et al [162. 163] uses two fiilly-periodic boxes, I and II. 

The alternative to direct simulation of two-phase coexistence is the calculation of free energies or chemical potentials together with solution of the themiodynamic coexistence conditions. Thus, we must solve (say) pj (P) = PjjCT ) at constant T. A reasonable approach [173. 174. 175 and 176] is to conduct constant-AT J simulations, measure p by test-particle insertion, and also to note that the simulations give the derivative 3p/3 7 =(F)/A directly. Thus, conducting... 

Panagiotopoulos A Z 1987. Direct Determination of Phase Coexistence Properties of Fluids by Mon Carlo Simulation in a New Ensemble. Molecular Physics 61 813-826. 

Cellulose I. The majority of celluloses in the native state were previously thought to have the same crystal stmcture (Cellulose I), varying only in perfection of the crystaUites. Now, at least two different crystal stmctures are known for these materials, named la and ip. These two phases coexist in... 

The example illustrates how Monte Carlo studies of lattice models can deal with questions which reach far beyond the sheer calculation of phase diagrams. The reason why our particular problem could be studied with such success Hes of course in the fact that it touches a rather fundamental aspect of the physics of amphiphilic systems—the interplay between structure and wetting behavior. In fact, the results should be universal and apply to all systems where structured, disordered phases coexist with non-struc-tured phases. It is this universal character of many issues in surfactant physics which makes these systems so attractive for theoretical physicists. 

The function /[0(r)] has three minima by construction and guarantees three-phase coexistence of the oil-rich phase, water-rich phase, and microemulsion. The minima for oil-rich and water-rich phases are of equal depth, which makes the system symmetric, therefore fi is zero. Varying the parameter /o makes the microemulsion more or less stable with respect to the other two bulk uniform phases. Thus /o is related to the chemical potential of the surfactant. The constant g2 depends on go /o and is chosen in such a way that the correlation function G r) = (0(r)0(O)) decays monotonically in the oil-rich and water-rich phases [12,13]. This is the case when gi > 4y/l +/o - go- Here we take, arbitrarily, gj = 4y l +/o - go + 0.01. 

First we look at the simpler case of the shrinking of a single cluster of radius R at two-phase coexistence. Assume that the phase inside this cluster and the surrounding phase are at thermodynamic equilibrium, apart from the surface tension associated with the cluster surface. This surface tension exerts a force or pressure inside the cluster, which makes the cluster energetically unfavorable so that it shrinks, under diffusive release of the conserved quantity (matter or energy) associated with the order parameter. 

The shaded region is that part of the phase diagram where liquid and vapor phases coexist in equilibrium, somewhat in analogy to the boiling line for a pure fluid. The ordinary liquid state exists on the high-pressure, low-temperature side of the two-phase region, and the ordinary gas state exists on the other side at low pressure and high temperature. As with our earlier example, we can transform any Type I mixture... 

Barrer s discussion4 of his analog of Eq. 28 merits some comment. Equation 28 expresses the equilibrium condition between ice and hydrate. As such it is valid for all equilibria in which the two phases coexist and not only for univariant equilibria corresponding with a P—7" line in the phase diagram. (It holds, for instance, in the entire ice-hydratell-gas region of the ternary system water-methane-propane considered in Section III.C.(2).) In addition to Eq. 28 one has Clapeyron s equation... 

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